Gaming & Culture —

E3 2009: same as E3 2006, public not invited (updated)

Rumors are swirling about next year's E3 gaming expo. Some sources are …

Update

The ESA just gave us the official heads-up that the E3 2009 will take place from June 2-4, and will be much bigger with more companies, professionals, and journalists attending. Our rundown of the announcement can be found over in Opposable Thumbs.

Original story

The "old" Electronics Entertainment Expo was known for lavish parties, loud music, and giant video screens... and of course the booth babes. The "new" E3 is known for much smaller meetings. Last year the show had many great games to play, but was almost completely devoid of excitement or spectacle. The show has yet to find any kind of workable balance; meanwhile, shows like the public Penny Arcade Expo are enjoying record attendance and positive buzz. The new rumor? E3 is going to be plumped up again into a big-time show in 2009, and the event may be open to the public.

This information comes from Newsweek'sLevel Up Blog, a site that's very rarely hurting for sources. "According to a source close to the process, the convention floor and meeting rooms will open on Tuesday June 2nd to media and industry professionals," it was explained. "On Friday June 5th and Saturday June 6th, however, the show floor will open up to the public."

The large press conferences from Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft as well as the bigger publishers such as EA would take place on Monday June 1 and Tuesday. This unnamed source also claimed the show would be capped at 40,000 people, which is much larger than the hand-selected group of journalists who have attended E3 in the past two years.

"It was a long journey to get there, politically," this source stated. "After vehemently opposing a bigger show three years ago—to now go back to the board, admit a mistake, and advocate for a bigger show. It reflects well on the organization and the board to recognize they made a mistake and, regardless of how it would look publicly, go ahead and fix it."

The press and public have been vocally opposed to the new format for the show. We've attended E3 for the past three years, and while the games and talent attending the show and presenting their games has remained impressive and made the trip well worth it, the empty halls and lack of "show" during E3 2008 bordered on the depressing. Some more flash, and access for more sites, would definitely be a good thing.

We contacted Dan Hewitt from the ESA for comment on these rumors, and as expected he was evasive. "We aren't commenting on the rumors circulating right now, but rather will make an announcement about the 2009 E3 Expo at an appropriate time," he told Ars. Newsweek has since backed off the story somewhat, claiming other sources are disputing the possibility that the show will be open to the public for a couple of days. Our guess is that the format, and the exact details, are still being worked on; public days and an attendance cap are more likely than not still being hammered out, leading to multiple sources using the media to champion what they would like to see from the show.

We gave our advice after attending the last show, and we stand by all of those recommendations today. The old show was too much, with the good stories coming from meetings behind closed doors, and booths so huge and loud it was impossible to hear about the game you were trying to play. It was an expensive—if impressive—mess, but now things have swung much too far in the other direction.

The show isn't broken beyond repair, but it is certainly ailing. Hopefully, whatever changes are made for next year's E3 are for the better; it would be a shame to see the same format limp forward for another year.

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